HBO Renews 'Westworld' For A Third Season, Only Weeks After Season 2 Started

Fans should rejoice that Westworld, even if it just premiered its season 2 two weeks ago, has been signed by HBO for a third run.

Yup, the hit sci-fi thriller series has just returned for its second season on April 22, and yet the network has already sealed the show's third run. The no-brainer move by HBO is justified by the praise and rating Westworld has been getting, even though season 2 has had slightly lower numbers than the first season.

"From the inspired storytelling to the incredible visuals, we are so excited to see where the next chapter will take us," Casey Bloys, president of HBO programming, said.

The move came as no surprise as well for those who know the exact numbers behind episode of Westworld. During the first season, it had an average of 13.2 million viewers per episode. The season 2 premiered with 3 million viewers in all platforms against the 3.3 million during the season 1.

Westworld season 1 has become HBO's most-watched freshman series ever. It has also gained more than 20 Emmy nominations, but went home with five awards.

Time Gap

While fans are excited of the news, the time when Westworldseason 3 will air is still up for debate. This is worth noting precisely because of the gap seasons 1 and 2 had, which was a year and a half. Yup, it took that long for the comeback of the series, which skipped the whole 2017 without giving something to fans to grapple on to.

"With a show of this scope and scale, we're not interested in doing the compromised version. We want the show to get bigger and bigger and more ambitious, and this takes time," showrunner Jonathan Nolan revealed to the Entertainment Weekly.

Westworld is created by Nolan and Lisa Joy and is inspired by its namesake Michael Crichton 1973 film. It stars Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton, James Marsden, and Jeffrey Wright.

Wood, during an interview mid-April, may have foreseen that Westworld season 3 was already on the horizon. The 30-year-old actress then admitted that she doesn't receive the same salary as her male costars but that she will finally be receiving equal pay on the next installments.

"I was just told that, 'Hey, you're getting equal pay.' ... I almost got emotional," Wood said at the time.

It is still unclear how Westworld season 3 will go, but Nolan already maintained that they will resolve the mystery by the end of the current season.